Economist Abdelkhalek Farouk was sentenced Saturday to five years in prison on charges of “spreading false information” after just two hearings, with no defense arguments and no access to case files.
Farouk’s lawyer, Nabeh Elganadi told Al Manassa, the defense was blindsided by the court referral. “On Sept. 25, another lawyer informed us of a hearing scheduled for that day. We rushed to court and requested a postponement to examine the documents,” he said. The session was deferred to Oct. 2, but efforts to obtain the case file from the prosecution failed.
At the second hearing, the defense repeated their request for more time to review the case, according to Elganadi. The judge refused, allowing the prosecution to proceed anyway, and closed the session without hearing the defense.
“The judge and the court clerk left the courtroom without announcing a verdict,” he added. It was only later that the legal team received confirmation that Farouk had been sentenced to five years, after repeated failed attempts to contact the court for the final verdict.
This is a first-instance ruling. Farouk is expected to appeal, though a hearing date has not yet been set.
Farouk was arrested on Oct. 20, 2024, following a Facebook post titled “The Theft of the Century,” which compiled his past articles. These included “The Administrative Capital: A Case Study in Distorted Priorities, Al-Organi: The Backdoor of Presidential Corruption”, and “The Seizure of Islands and Public Property: The Dangers of Using the Army as a Proxy”.
Naglaa Salama, visual artist and Farouk’s wife, stated on Facebook that security forces confiscated her mobile phone and laptop at the time of his arrest. The next day, the Supreme State Security Prosecution ordered Farouk’s detention for 15 days pending investigation. He was interrogated over nearly everything he had written or posted online, including articles, Facebook posts, research papers, and unpublished manuscripts.
This marks Farouk’s second arrest in recent years. In 2018, he was detained over his book “Is Egypt Really a Poor Country?”, which was confiscated from the printing house. He was released after eight days. The book challenged official state narratives, arguing that Egypt’s economic problems stem from state mismanagement of wealth and resources—not poverty.
Farouk’s case has drawn sharp concern from rights groups and legal observers, who say it exemplifies the erosion of due process in politically sensitive cases—especially those involving criticism of the government or military.
